About Us
Rayuwa foundation is a community based non-profit organization in Ghana working with marginalized communities to empower them, eradicate violence and promote holistic community wellbeing. Rayuwa Foundation registered with the registrar general department of Ghana in 2012 and has since been licensed to operate as an NGO. Rayuwa Foundation works to promote three sustainable development goals SDG’s.
SDG-3 Rayuwa Foundation works through traditional and religious community leadership to ensure no one is left behind. These engagements tackle the core issues affecting the local communities and working towards promoting wellbeing for all its members. Part of these engagements dwells on sanitation, physical and mental health awareness, girl child education, teenage pregnancy and school dropouts. The foundations unique life skills training through its annual community peer counseling programs has since trained 150 youth and continue to train more each year to serve as peer counselors curbing the negative influences young people may have on each other into positive influences.
SDG-4 Rayuwa Foundation engages with students and school management to develop noncurricular activities that contribute to promoting holistic approach to learning. Abuse such as bullying, corporal punishment and sexual harassment has contributed significantly to school dropout rates. To curb this menace, the foundation designed a child protection curriculum and runs a child protection school based clubs to raise awareness about child protection issues that were previously not discussed and raise a conversation around it.
SDG-5 In 2015, the Foundation with support from Carter Center launched a media campaign to end violence perpetrated against women and girls in Ghana. The foundation has worked directly with community members and the department of the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit to curb reported cases of early marriages.
Rayuwa operates mainly in Muslim populated communities in Ghana usually referred to as “Zongo”. Zongo literally means a “traveller’s camp” or “stop over” in Hausa. Historically, the dwellers of these communities were Muslims migrants from mostly Northern parts of the country and also other Sub-Saharan African countries.
This communities referred to as “Zongo” have peculiar characteristics which are similar to most slums in Africa. The key focus of Rayuwa Foundation is to ultimately influence the culture and orientation of the people within the community positively to eschew violence and promote well-being in the community.
Emily Anne Williamson, understanding the Zongo processes of socio-spatial marginalization in Ghana, 2013 AGA Khan Travel Grant Report, 3.